Good people,Most royal greening verdancy.Rooted in the sun,You shine with radiant light.In this circle of earthly existenceYou shine so finely,It surpasses understanding.God hugs you,You are encircled by the armsOf the mystery of God.

“It may not be official theological language but it should be. “God hugs you” says it all: When we’re tired, depressed, exhausted from working so hard, full of satisfaction with today but concerned about tomorrow, God hugs you. What else is there to say?” Joan Chittister

What else is there to say? Nothing.

“The younger son got up and started back to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt sorry for him. He ran to his son and hugged and kissed him.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/god-hugs-you/feed/0UNDERSTANDING PEACEhttp://redmountainjournal.com/understanding-peace/
http://redmountainjournal.com/understanding-peace/#respondSun, 18 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2265Dallas Willard (1935-2013) “Peace, or shalom, is a kind of rest that comes from bedrock confidence in the holistic, universal provision of what is necessary and good. Hymnist Horatio Spafford offers one of the best descriptions of the effects and sources of peace: “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.” Consequently, a person of peace does not attack others and faces attacks by others with calmness and without rancor, since there is an assured knowledge and experience of abundance. Such a one is neither hostile, suspicious, nor “touchy” to the point of offense. The wisdom that springs out of a life from above, says the Letter of James, “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/understanding-peace/feed/0HUMMINGBIRDShttp://redmountainjournal.com/hummingbirds/
http://redmountainjournal.com/hummingbirds/#respondSat, 17 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2264What does the hummingbird hum?Other than the flapping of the wing.Or the quickness of the moveThe bullet body in a groove.

Is this the music of the hum?Or, the sound of a pretender It really doesn’t matterAs we listen to the pitter-patter.

Do I hear a hummerOr do I hear a drummer?What does the hummingbird hum?What does the hummingbird drum?

(Poems 2012)

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/hummingbirds/feed/0THE FUSEhttp://redmountainjournal.com/the-fuse/
http://redmountainjournal.com/the-fuse/#respondFri, 16 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2263A Fuse is a length of material along which a small flame moves to explode a bomb or firework, meanwhile allowing time for those who light it to move to a safe distance. (Online Dictionary)

The same idea is used metaphorically to describe things that are about to explode… though not a literal bomb or firework… yet an explosion is expected. Without leaning into conspiracy theory or panic eschatology it does seem that some things need to be checked to see: how long is the fuse?

I was wondering about the plastic flotsam in our oceans that is twice the size of the state of Texas, forest fires that burn like never before, bug trees in our forests, the issue of lowered water tables that cover over half the United States if not more… whoa! Whoa! I am just thinking about a few ecological fuses that are burning.

How long are the fuses for racism, cultural exclusivity, confusion with self identity, tattoo mania, hatred of ‘the other side’ in our national division on everything, the shrinking of faith and the elevation of atheism, political silliness, the dramatic increase of suicide and hopelessness, military fanaticism, economic instability and false relationships through social media and other artificial means (texting)…

How long is the fuse? We can determine the length in many cases.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/the-fuse/feed/0HELP FROM THE HELPERhttp://redmountainjournal.com/help-from-the-helper/
http://redmountainjournal.com/help-from-the-helper/#respondThu, 15 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2262If there is no help from the Helper (the Holy Spirit) there is not any divine nature, divine power or entrance into the kingdom. One is left with dead relationship and dead religion. This same kind of union and understanding can be (and should be) known to us in personal relationships and especially in marriage. We should be totally open to receive and house the Holy Spirit in our inner person so he can prepare us to be given to others.

If as marriage partners we could grasp this concept of being formed by the Helper to be given to our partners, and others, then the pursuit of personal needs, desires, and motivations could be swallowed up by being consumed by the Helper to be made as a gift for another. When this doesn’t happen our own pursuits of God, a deeper life, and even solitude and silence become exercises to benefit us as a gift to ourselves and not as a preparing (as a bride or groom) for someone else. The Helper’s job is to make us a gift to Jesus and then a gift to someone else. To pray for Holy Spirit gifts to make ourselves more desirable, acceptable, beautiful, transformed, and thus a gift, is to understand the union of the Helper as One “who abides in us and is in us” (John 14:17). True union with Jesus, and with mates and others, is not very probable without this kind of regeneration and understanding.

“I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/help-from-the-helper/feed/0LACK OF HOPEhttp://redmountainjournal.com/lack-of-hope/
http://redmountainjournal.com/lack-of-hope/#respondWed, 14 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2261Max Lucado, pastor and writer, wrote, “We live in a day of despair. The suicide rate in America has increased 24% since 1999. Twenty-four percent! If a disease saw such a spike, we would deem it an epidemic. How do we explain the increase? We’ve never been more educated. We have tools of technology our parents could not have dreamed of. We are saturated with entertainment and recreation. Yet more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. How could this be?

Among the answers must be this: people are dying for lack of hope. Secularism sucks the hope out of society. It reduces the world to a few decades between birth and hearse. Many people believe this world is as good as it gets, and let’s face it. It’s not that good. But People of the Promise have an advantage. They determine to ponder, proclaim, and pray the promises of God. They are like Abraham who “didn’t tiptoe around God’s promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong” (Romans 4:20, The Message translation)

“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/lack-of-hope/feed/0FROM PETITION TO PRESENCEhttp://redmountainjournal.com/from-petition-to-presence/
http://redmountainjournal.com/from-petition-to-presence/#respondTue, 13 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2260Prayer is the only true path to complete transfer and understanding of the ways and nature of Jesus. With Holy Spirit gift help and direction for the life of prayer, we can more readily move from ‘asking, seeking and knocking’ which are active and pursuing, to receiving, silence and knowing. When prayer remains in the realm of only asking it is obvious we have not crossed over from our ‘needs and wants’ list to hear and know Jesus’ opinion and answer. Prayer is still a one-sided conversation and visitation; meaning we visited the Lord but He did not necessarily visit us. He had no opportunity.As long as we remain in petition it is difficult to move completely to presence. It is because we are still in the need factor from our perspective instead of the solution factor from His perspective. True communion always involves another. Prayer is the ultimate communion and by entering the listening, hearing, adoring, knowing and beauty side of our prayer we have reached full communion. To have reached our side of communion and not His is the reason for most of our hindered and half-hearted prayers. It is truly half-hearted because it is His half but not ours or our half but not His. Petition either moves toward adoration and thankfulness or the tendency for half-heartedness sets in.“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/from-petition-to-presence/feed/0RATS IN THE CELLARhttp://redmountainjournal.com/rats-in-the-cellar/
http://redmountainjournal.com/rats-in-the-cellar/#respondMon, 12 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2259C S Lewis (1898-1963) wrote, “We begin to notice, besides our particular sinful acts, our sinfulness; begin to be alarmed not only about what we do, but about what we are. This may sound rather difficult, so I will try to make it clear from my own case. When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light.”

“You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others,” he said, “but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/rats-in-the-cellar/feed/0SMALL ACTS OF LOVEhttp://redmountainjournal.com/small-acts-of-love/
http://redmountainjournal.com/small-acts-of-love/#respondSun, 11 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2258Henry Drummond (1851-1897), the Scottish evangelist, and writer once wrote, “I have seen almost all the beautiful things that God has made; I have enjoyed almost every pleasure that he has planned for us; and yet as I look back I see standing out above all the life that has gone four or five short experiences when the love of God reflected itself in some poor imitations, some small act of love of mine. And these seem to be the things, which alone of all one’s life abide. Everything else in all our lives is transitory. Every other good is visionary. But the acts of love which no one knows about, or can ever know about – they never fail.”

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Jesus

]]>http://redmountainjournal.com/small-acts-of-love/feed/0KNOWING GODhttp://redmountainjournal.com/knowing-god/
http://redmountainjournal.com/knowing-god/#respondSat, 10 Nov 2018 06:00:00 +0000http://redmountainjournal.com/?p=2257Dallas Willard (1935-2013), wrote, “Knowing” God isintimate and personal. Accordingly, the only description of eternal life found in the words we have from Jesus is “This is eternal life, that they [his disciples] may know you, the only real God, and Jesus the anointed, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

This may sound to us like “mere head knowledge.” But the biblical “know” always refers to an intimate, personal, interactive relationship.”

It is interesting to me that John 17:3 does not say to “know about you” but to “know you” and that is a huge difference. Like any other deep personal relationship, to know someone or to know about them is crazy different and not even to be compared.

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”Jesus